Gauntlet (1985 video game)

Gauntlet is a top-down dungeon crawl where up to four players cooperate to clear each level of monsters and find the exit. Each character has unique stats: the Warrior excels in melee, the Valkyrie balances attack and defense, the Wizard casts powerful but costly spells, and the Elf is fast but fragile. The game uses a joystick and two buttons—one to attack, one to use magic—and a key innovation was the ability to drop a “smart bomb” that clears the screen. Levels are procedurally generated, ensuring no two playthroughs are identical, and the difficulty scales with the number of players, a design choice that encouraged group play. The game’s iconic voice, synthesized by a speech chip, delivers phrases like “Shot food” and “Elf shot the food,” adding to its charm. The cabinet featured a trackball for selecting options and a dedicated “start” button for each player, a rarity at the time.

Gauntlet was developed by Atari Games’ internal team, led by Ed Logg, who drew inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons and earlier maze games. The hardware was based on the Atari System 1 board, but with a custom video chip that allowed for smooth scrolling and many sprites. The game was a hit, earning over $1 billion in quarters by 1987, and it spawned a franchise including Gauntlet II, Gauntlet Legends, and a 2014 reboot. It was ported to numerous home systems, including the NES, Atari 2600, and Commodore 64, though the home versions often lacked the four-player simultaneous play. Gauntlet’s influence is seen in later cooperative games like Diablo and League of Legends, and it is often cited as a precursor to the modern action RPG. In 2010, it was ranked by IGN as the 92nd best arcade game of all time.

Beyond its mainstream success, Gauntlet has several obscure facets. The game’s speech was generated by a TMS5220 chip, and the phrase “Red Warrior needs food badly” was recorded by voice actor Dave Warhol, who also voiced the game’s other characters. The game’s levels are not truly infinite; after level 100, the game repeats with a different color palette, and the “win” condition is reaching level 100, after which the game loops. A little-known fact is that the game’s code contains a hidden message from the programmers, accessible via a cheat code. The arcade cabinet had a “free play” mode that was rarely used in public, and the game’s attract mode featured a scrolling message that read “The Gauntlet is a test of endurance.” Additionally, the game was one of the first to use a “continue” system that required inserting more coins, a practice that later became standard in arcade games.

Gauntlet received critical acclaim upon release, with reviewers praising its cooperative gameplay and replayability. It was a finalist for the 1986 Origins Award for Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Computer Game. The game’s tagline, “Arcade action so intense, you’ll need a quarter to survive,” became a marketing catchphrase. It has been referenced in popular culture, including in the TV show “The Simpsons” and the film “Wreck-It Ralph.” The game’s characters have appeared in other Atari titles, such as the 2003 game “Gauntlet: Dark Legacy.” In 2018, the original arcade version was re-released as part of the “Atari Flashback Classics” collection. The game’s legacy is also evident in the “Gauntlet” mode in the game “Fortnite,” which was inspired by the original’s cooperative dungeon-crawling.

Smart bomb

A special item that clears all enemies on the screen when used.

Procedural generation

A method of creating levels algorithmically, ensuring each playthrough is unique.

TMS5220

A speech synthesis chip used in the arcade hardware to produce the game's voice.